


Goal-Directed Behaviour

by NeurotropicAgentX



Series: So Much to Tell You [1]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bittersweet, Other, Possessiveness, Rare Pair, Self-Loathing, Unhealthy View of Relationships, Way More Introspection Than Intended, minor worldbuilding, symbiosis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-17 22:36:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18107882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeurotropicAgentX/pseuds/NeurotropicAgentX
Summary: Riot survives the rocket explosion, but gets thrown out of Drake. Thanks to Venom, it’s stranded on a hostile, alien planet and might never return home. There’s a lot to come to terms with, including its own aberrant feelings toward its last host.Meanwhile, Drake hasn’t begun to process the failed mission. Worse still, during those last few moments he caught a glimpse of Riot’s true plans for humanity and the Earth. But why would he even need to think about any of that, with Riot gone?Eddie wonders how he and Venom ended up involved in the interpersonal problems of these two assholes.





	Goal-Directed Behaviour

**Author's Note:**

> Because every Drake/Riot writer needs their own version of that one post-rocket-explosion sort of fix-it fic, yeah? Many thanks to my editor for her forbearance.

Eddie stared at the TV set and brooded. He’d turned down the opportunity to go after Drake again, this time with the full backing of the network. At the time, the offer had seemed kind of hollow. Now seeing that smug asshole reassuring the public made Eddie’s jaw clench. 

There was something off about Drake’s interview manner. It wasn’t the injuries, though either his makeup team hadn’t been able to cover up all the bruises, burns and lacerations or Drake had decided not to so he could play the victim better. No, there was something about his expression that was almost familiar. Eddie stared at the screen and tried to work out what it was.

Drake was currently spouting some bullshit about a dangerous group that had sabotaged the launch and killed a dozen scientists. Obviously it had been him and Riot, but the wounds would have baffled forensics and Eddie would have bet anything that the security footage had quietly disappeared. 

‘What about reports of strange creatures fighting on the rocket’s launch pad?’ one enterprising reporter asked. ‘There’s some disturbing footage from a member of the public. How do you respond to allegations of escaped gene-splicing experiments?’ 

A brief smile hovered on Drake’s lips. It was the most genuine expression he’d made during the entire interview. ‘Trust me, Ms Kossmeier, that’s the stuff of science fiction. If the Life Foundation could produce results like that from gene-tech we’d be advertising it and turning a profit.’

Drake’s smile faded and the thing that had been bothering Eddie about the interview clicked into place. He knew what Drake usually looked like on TV (he’d gotten a little obsessed, so sue him). This wasn’t it. There was none of the usual fake warmth and sincerity. He looked blank most of the time, drained and…

Something lurched painfully in Eddie’s guts. The look in Drake’s eyes was the same bleak, hollow look he’d seen in the mirror every morning during the time he’d thought Venom was gone.

 **I’m here, Eddie** Venom reassured.

Eddie let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. ‘Yeah. Yeah, of course. Thanks.’

He turned off the TV, suddenly uncomfortable. He hadn’t given much thought to Drake or Riot after the explosion. Venom’s absence had overshadowed everything. He hadn’t been doing so well until he’d heard the faint whisper inside his head one night.

‘Is there a chance Riot’s still… in Drake?’ Eddie asked. ‘Like maybe he was hurt more than you and is regaining his strength more slowly?’

**No. I barely held on. If Riot was hurt worse than I was, he’s dead. If he wasn’t, he would have made his presence known by now. He was stronger, a faster healer.**

The creeping discomfort came back in full force. Venom growled in the back of Eddie’s skull and forced his shoulders down. Eddie had been hunching them up around his ears. 

**Riot isn’t coming for us,** Venom said.

‘Yeah. That’s not actually what… I uh… look, it’s fucked up, but I kind of feel sorry for Drake. When I thought I had lost you, lost _us_ … I couldn’t. It wasn’t…’

 **I know.**

Eddie gave a small smile despite himself. Sometimes it was useful having Venom inside his head. Like when there were feelings that were a lot easier to feel than to say out loud. ‘Anyway, I know it’s stupid. Riot just chose Drake because he was the one with the rocket. You said it wasn’t uh, common, for you guys to bond like we did.’ 

**True symbiosis isn’t encouraged. Wanting it is aberrant.**

‘Then I guess we’re just aberrant,’ Eddie joked.

 **Yes. We are.** Eddie was getting better at reading Venom’s feelings and his fierce agreement had a weird edge to it with something like defiance and maybe even a tentative pride.

Venom didn’t like talking about his homeworld or his past or his culture. But Eddie could read between the lines a bit and he could make an educated guess as to why he’d been so quick to turn on Riot.

‘Hey, want to go out tonight? Maybe hunt down some bad guys?’ 

Venom didn’t comment on the obvious diversionary tactic, which was nice of him. Instead warm satisfaction at the thought of hunting flooded their bond. **Yes. We would like that.**

///

It wasn’t like they went out specifically to look for people to eat, Eddie reasoned. In fact most of time when they were doing vigilante justice, they barely hurt anyone because the sort of criminals they stopped were just desperate people backed into a corner by a shitty society. But sometimes the people they stopped were… worse. The sort of people that Eddie used to go after in his reports. The sort of people that made rage rise in him in a hot wave and made him do stupid life-destroying things just to make them pay. Which these days involved giving Venom the go-ahead. 

Eddie didn’t shy away from what they did together, but he didn’t think about it too hard either. Eating people satisfied Venom at his deepest instinctual level and on some level it satisfied Eddie to see justice done. Or at least a version of justice that couldn’t be weaselled out of with enough money and corrupt lawyers. And Venom liked it when Eddie enjoyed it too, purring words like ‘compatible’ and ‘perfect host’ in the tones a human might reserve for ‘lover’. 

However, tonight was quiet. There was a mild disappointment humming through Venom’s half of their bond, but they’d eaten well enough recently that the feeling faded beneath the joy of moving effortlessly through the sleeping city. They’d missed this. There was nothing like the freedom of moving over rooftops or scaling the sheer sides of buildings. Eddie’s fear of heights was muted down when they moved together, sinking into a place of shared consciousness and absolute trust. 

They swarmed up the side of the next building, but Venom brought them to a stop on the roof. **Something’s wrong.**

There was a woman standing on the opposite side of the roof, right at the edge. Eddie gave Venom a nudge in case they needed to grab her if she decided to jump. Either out of terror or because that had been her plan all along.

She turned to face them. There was no fear in her expression as she looked at them. In fact, her eyes were kind of glazed. Maybe she had taken something? Then she spoke. **‘Venom.’** That wasn’t a voice that came from a human throat.

Venom screeched. They were poised, ready to run or fight. Anne wasn’t here to save their collective ass again. How fast was Riot? **‘Not here to fight,’** Riot said. He also hadn’t manifested or done anything overtly threatening.

 **‘Then stay back,’** Venom growled, crouching low and digging the claws on their feet into the concrete rooftop.

The body Riot was wearing nodded, an eerily human gesture when measured against those blank eyes. God, what had Riot done to her? **‘I wanted to signal… talk.’**

Venom’s surfaced rippled uneasily, like he wanted to shift a different shape. **‘About what?’**

 **‘You made a choice and stranded us both here. You know how missions work. They’ll assume we’re dead. No one will come for us.’** Riot didn’t even sound angry, just resigned. **‘How could you make that choice?’**

 **‘Better than the other choice. We like it here. This planet, this strength.’** Venom raised an arm and curled their claws into a fist. Then he tilted their head and grinned at Riot.

**‘You betrayed our people.’**

**‘Our people are jerks. There are other scouts. They’ll find some other planet. Not this one. This one is ours.’**

**‘You were always an outcast, but were you really ready to live among these aliens and never signal with another person again? Never go home?’**

**‘Yes,’** Venom growled defensively. His emotions were a turbulent swirl and Eddie’s own joined in the mix. It had been easy to think of going up against Riot and Drake as saving the world. It was a lot harder to think of it as Venom giving up everything to come and live on a strange and hostile planet. Alone. Venom noticed Eddie’s guilt and sent a wave of reassurance. **We’re not alone. Never alone again,** he said privately. Then aloud to Riot he said, **‘We have what we want here. What we’ve always wanted. We have true symbiosis. We have Eddie.’** There was a lot less conflict in Venom as he said that and warmth glowed at the centre of their bond.

 **‘You actually want that? And it’s… enough?’** It didn’t sound like Riot was trying to poke holes in Venom’s answers, it almost sounded like _he_ wanted reassurance. Eddie tried to hold onto the memory of Riot as a giant blade monster, tearing Venom away from him, spearing him through the chest. Holding onto that wasn’t easy when Riot was just standing there and talking about what he’d lost.

 **‘It is enough.’** Venom tilted their head. **‘You’re not wearing your last host. Not wearing _Drake_.’**

The body Riot was wearing flinched. **‘No,’** he replied steadily.

 **‘We know he’s alive. Saw him on TV. Never known you to leave a host intact afterwards.’** Venom thought for a moment. **‘Mostly intact.’**

**‘The explosion was loud and threw me out of his body. What do you mean _mostly_ intact?’**

Venom grinned. **‘It was a dangerous explosion. Hurt all of us. Hurt Drake too. What do you care?’**

**‘I don’t.’**

**‘No? We felt what you did during the fight.’**

Riot growled, a low warning rumble that made the hairs on the back of Eddie’s neck stand up, even though he was overlaid by Venom. **‘I had to. To keep up with you.’** Riot was moving behind his host’s eyes. He was staring and Eddie knew with absolute certainty that for the first time in this conversation Riot meant them both when he said ‘you’. 

**‘That was the first time you ever had true symbiosis,’** Venom said and it wasn’t a question.

The woman’s skin rippled where Riot was moving about underneath. **‘Yes. It was necessary.’**

**‘You enjoyed it.’**

The growl came again, louder this time.

 _Dude, what are you doing? Why are you taunting him?_ Eddie asked, trying not to panic. 

**We can’t win a direct fight against him. We barely escaped alive the first time. But maybe we can win with words. Anne taught us that,** Venom added.

 _Win_ how _, exactly? Send him back to Drake?_

**Precisely.**

**‘You don’t know anything about me, traitor,’** Riot snarled.

Venom paused. Eddie could just _tell_ he was about to do something life-destroyingly stupid. Yeah, they really were compatible.

 **‘Aberrant,’** Venom hissed back.

Riot screeched. Blades erupted from his host body and slammed into the concrete rooftop.

_He’s going to kill us._

**No. This isn’t about us. Not really.**

Sure enough, Riot didn’t lunge across the rooftop. He withdrew his blades back into the woman. They left lacerations that bled sluggishly. Eddie shivered, even held safely beneath Venom. He didn’t remember that happening to Drake’s body during the fight. _We have to save that woman._

Venom rippled. **She’s dead. You can’t smell it?**

Eddie recoiled. _What, is she_ rotting _?_

**No, Riot’s keeping her processes going, but she smells dead. Bad meat.**

_It’s creepy when you say things like that._

Riot had gone quiet. Venom tensed, waiting for him to attack. **‘Maybe it’s good no one else will come here and end up tainted like you,’** Riot said. With that he jumped off the edge of the building. They heard him tearing into the masonry on his way down, but they weren’t keen on getting any closer.

 _Okay, what’s the deal with pushing him to go back to Drake? How is that a good idea?_ Eddie asked. He could feel Venom’s certainty at a plan well-executed and mild smugness at having manipulated Riot. 

**Just like how he said. He’s glad no one’s coming now. If Riot goes back to symbiosis with Drake, if he _wants_ to, he’s aberrant. Another team leader would kill him for it. Anyone powerful enough would. This way Riot won’t be able to try and bring more of us here and destroy the Earth.**

_I get that, but you sent him back to_ Carlton Drake _._

**Yes? Riot liked him. What does it matter which human he bonds with?**

_Drake’s scary-powerful. The whole thing with the rocket barely touched his stock prices. I can’t even imagine what he’d do if he also had, like, super-strength and a healing factor on top of billions._

Eddie felt Venom relax. **Oh. Don’t worry, Drake’s not powerful. He was barely helping Riot during the fight, even when they were in symbiosis. That was all Riot’s strength, I could tell. Riot is very powerful.**

Eddie wasn’t, strictly speaking, _talking_ while he was overlaid by Venom, but his mouth opened and closed a couple of times. He tried to find the words to explain how Drake, who had probably never thrown a punch in his life before the fight on the launch pad, was one of the most dangerous people in the city. 

///

Signalling with Venom left Riot feeling agitated and off-balance. It pushed the body it was riding and instinctively sought higher ground. At the top of the nearest skyscraper it paused, losing some of the restlessness that had driven it. Recovering from the explosion had been difficult, but at least the goal had been clear. Get stronger, get back to the humans. It coiled and twisted around its host’s organs as the memory of its frantic battle to survive surfaced again. The more it tried to push the memory away, the more vividly it seemed to remember. 

Riot had torn through the failing rocket, even as fire had eaten into its flesh. Its panic and Drake’s had been identical, pulling them tighter into their symbiosis. Riot had shifted between manifesting to tear at the metal and sinking back into Drake to hide from the flames and heal its only protection from the deadly atmosphere. If Drake died, it died. A cruel choice to decide between dying by fire or dying by oxygen. Or dying with its host. 

Drake had thrown open every part of his mind and utterly relaxed into Riot’s grip on the body. Riot had ruthlessly exploited the extra processing power to calculate trajectories and forces, lunging for sheets of twisted metal in an effort to slow their descent. 

As they’d neared the water a secondary wave of sound had torn through them. Weakened from the pain and exertion, Riot was ripped from its host. It lost consciousness before it hit the water. Only a lifetime’s worth of predator instincts had saved it. Before it had even regained full awareness, it found itself striking out and devouring prey that came too close. Fresh meat and the tangy blood of marine creatures helped it rebuild. Earth oceans felt wrong and made Riot’s surface tighten and sting unpleasantly, but they were more hospitable than the air. 

Riot had inhabited a few animal hosts, but the unsophisticated brains provided little extra support for higher thought. It had still enjoyed inhabiting a shark. Mimicking the body patterns of large alien predators was always fun, if of limited tactical value. Then Riot and the shark had found a human swimmer. Riot had taken her over and devoured the shark. Her horror at Riot, at the shark, and at the feeding had been unpleasant and dissonant so it had consumed enough of her brain to fix the problem. That meant micromanaging the body afterwards, but it also meant that Riot wouldn’t be tempted to reach out toward that place of connection. Toward symbiosis.

Its head turned in the direction of the Life Foundation and its old host. Even after eating most of this host’s brain, some of the remaining bits kept pushing it to use its eyes, as if that was the most important sense. Venom was aberrant. Venom had betrayed their people and given itself over to some alien. And then it had chosen things. It had defied a team leader. Somehow. 

There was no more rocket. No way of contacting its people or bringing them here. Could Riot find another host that could _make_ a rocket? Probably not. Riot had scoured each of its human hosts’ memories looking for any information related to rockets. Many, many humans working together were needed to build rockets. Most humans had no interest in rockets and obtaining one through this planet’s strange barter system was basically impossible. Drake’s possession of a rocket had been highly unusual by human standards. Aberrant. 

Riot manifested blades that whipped through the air before melting back into its host. Riot was a team leader without a team. There were no directives to follow from the core leaders anymore. Riot was good at carrying out open-ended missions. It was smart, it could improvise under pressure and it got selected for the hardest missions to the most dangerous places. Other team members had complimented its tactical thinking. But Riot had failed. On this planet, with one last team member who had stood against it, Riot had lost everything.

There was an emptiness in Riot where the certainty of the mission used to be. It reached out instinctively toward a familiar place of cold, hard, shining purpose and recoiled when it only met more emptiness. This host was dead and Riot had still tried to reach out toward symbiosis. It twisted in on itself, rage and shame and a thread of fear flaring through it. Sick. Aberrant. Riot had tried to kill Venom for this. Then after symbiosis with Drake, Riot hadn’t been able to and had tried to just engulf the traitor and take them both home instead. 

It couldn’t even bring itself to attack Venom now. Not when there was no one else left on this planet. Not when it was so alone. It was staring at the Life Foundation again, watching the lights that didn’t flicker the way stars did. Venom had adapted. For all its faults, it was good at infiltration. Riot growled to itself and sank claws into the building’s hard surface. Something was pulling at it, and for a lack of anything better to do, Riot followed the impulse to swarm down the skyscraper and head toward the steady lights. 

///

Infiltrating the Life Foundation was a trivial task for Riot. The second time around was even easier since it had knowledge of Drake’s schedule from when it had inhabited his body. Drake worked late most nights and his office was located high up in the building, which Riot approved of. The adult body Riot was riding wasn’t as effective as a child body for getting into places unnoticed, so it scaled the building from the outside.

Once inside, it moved through a deserted corridor and arrived at Drake’s office. It was pleased to see light spilling out from beneath the closed door. Riot pushed open the door and walked in. Drake was typing rapidly at his computer, but he looked up at the intrusion. He froze for a heartbeat, his expression flickering between several emotions before settling on a smile. It didn’t reach his eyes. ‘You seem to be lost. Can I help you?’

Drake’s body bore the marks of old injury. Riot itched to fix the damage as if it were still inhabiting that body. Bizarrely enough, it also found itself hesitating. It forced its current body to take a step forward and then stopped it again. **‘Perhaps,’** Riot said, letting its own voice rumble out of the host’s throat.

Drake’s hands slammed down on his desk and he sprang to his feet. ‘Riot?’ Uncertainty and naked hope flared in his expression. But that wasn’t what drew Riot in closer. Drake looked hungry. It wasn’t the familiar hunger for food, but rather that consuming drive to change things, _fix_ things. Purpose. 

**‘Yes,’** Riot said.

Drake closed his eyes and his breath shuddered on the exhale. ‘You’re alive. You survived. I didn’t even let myself _hope_. Not when Brock and Venom didn’t come after me. I thought you were all dead.’

 **‘I’m alive. Venom too,’** Riot added after a pause.

‘Really? There’s been no hint of Venom for weeks. Maybe it helped Brock grow a brain and they’re laying low.’ Drake sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face. ‘I’ve been trying not to think about this. These last few weeks have been… and now you’re _back_ and I can’t ignore it any more.’ He shook his head and some of the uncertainty left his face. Riot didn’t much like the expression that replaced it. ‘Why did you kill my scientists in the launch centre?’ he asked, his tone perfectly even.

 **‘They were in our way,’** Riot lied. It had gotten careless. The mission was nearly over and Drake’s continued good will had been about to become unnecessary. So it had indulged its bloodlust and slaughtered a room full of humans so it could feel blood soaking into its flesh again. Drake had been enraged, but Riot had merely taken over and then they’d both had bigger things to worry about in the fight against Venom. 

‘In our way. I see. Do you remember the fight against Venom and Brock, on the launch pad?’

Riot shivered in the depths of its host body. **‘Yes.’** That fight had been life and death. Venom was stronger than it should have been while in symbiosis with that human. Riot had needed that same edge and Drake had provided it. As soon as Riot stopped holding back from the link, they’d crashed into true symbiosis. They’d wanted the exact the same things. To kill their enemies, to complete the mission, and to leave this wretched planet together. 

Drake’s gaze seemed to burn. ‘Do you remember that link flaring to life between us? That moment of full symbiosis?’

Drake wasn’t a threat, Riot had no reason to make its host body step back. The symbiosis had been necessary. That was the only way they’d been able to win the fight. And it still hadn’t been enough. **‘Of course I remember.’**

‘Then maybe you remember that in that moment I had access to _everything_. I saw your world, I saw your people, I saw your _plan_.’ 

Riot stilled. A host shouldn’t have been able access so much so quickly. Riot had known Drake was smart for a human, but for him to have managed this much in middle of combat… ‘Nothing to say to that, Riot? Tell me, when exactly would you have taken me over completely? As soon as we broke atmosphere, or would you have spun out your little game until we met up with your people? What would have been more _fun_ for you?’

Riot growled. It hadn’t thought that far ahead. Drake had been a means to an end, a vital part of the mission and Riot… Riot had liked working with him. Even before that glorious and sickening moment of symbiosis, riding Drake had been good. Drake was a leader, like Riot. He knew what it meant to put the mission first and to hold the lives of his people. The rocket launch wouldn’t have been pushed ahead so fast without his work with the other humans. 

And all throughout, Drake had wanted everything Riot was, everything it could offer. Persuading Drake had been easy. He’d practically persuaded himself in his desperation to believe that his and Riot’s goals aligned. That he’d found someone else who was also trying to save its species. Someone who’d chosen him. 

**‘I would have persuaded you in the end. Before we met up with the rest of my people,’** Riot said, gaining confidence as it spoke. That’s what would have happened. They wouldn’t have even needed to maintain symbiosis, especially if Venom hadn’t proved such a dangerous traitor, but Riot would have kept Drake. They could have worked together on the new goals set by the core leaders.

‘Persuaded me to let your people _devour_ mine? To destroy every piece of edible biomass on this planet and leave it a barren rock?!’

Beneath the skin of its current host, Riot’s flesh tingled with the instinct to form weaponry. Drake’s anger looked like a threat, even though humans were a weak species. 

**‘We would have left the planet afterwards. And taken some human hosts with us.’** Riot hesitated. **‘Venom and I wouldn’t have been the only ones who… Humans are a suitable species. Compatible. We were compatible. Us. I would have kept you.’** It said the last part quickly. Admitting even this level of aberrant desire made it twist and coil through its host’s meat. 

Drake’s face twisted with fury. ‘ _Kept_ me?! Like some kind of pet, perhaps? I would have fought you with everything I had. And we both know how that would have ended. You’ve been in my head. You know what I want and what I was willing to sacrifice to get it. I would absolutely tear my own heart out for my species.’

Riot remembered the constant beat of Drake’s heart, pulsing rich blood through the body. Drake had just said he’d rather die than betray his species. This wasn’t fair! Venom had betrayed its species and here was the human Riot wanted and he was holding fast. What was it about humans that inspired this insane loyalty?

 **‘You don’t even like your own species,’** Riot growled. It had been in Drake’s head, felt his frustration and contempt for humans.

‘I don’t have to like them! They’re sapient life and full of boundless potential and they’re _mine_.’ Drake’s blunt human teeth were bared and his eyes blazed.

His last word shivered through Riot and the deep ache that wasn’t even physical redoubled. Riot manifested, tendrils and blades pushing out through host skin and reaching toward Drake. 

Deadly noise tore through the room and Riot’s projections snapped back instinctively as it clung to its host body. Pain ripped through it, even encased in host flesh. Drake was causing the noise. One of his hands had moved beneath his desk. No wonder he hadn’t gotten any closer. The noise stopped. Riot shivered deep in its host’s body, recovering from the attack. It barely heard Drake’s next words as it struggled to draw itself together.

‘Don’t you dare threaten me!’ Drake snarled. ‘I told you I was expecting Venom to come after me. Did you think I was unprepared? If I die, you die. My security team has very specific instructions and some fascinating insights into symbiote weaknesses.’ Drake’s breaths were coming fast and hard and his dark eyes were strangely wet.

Riot was stunned. It hadn’t expected Drake to be _dangerous_. How dare its former host attack it?! Heavy blades manifested and Riot growled low in warning. Drake’s expression twisted and the noise came back for a brief burst. ‘Weren’t you listening?’ Drake hissed. Whatever Riot had wanted from coming here, it wasn’t this. It turned and fled. 

///

As soon as Riot was gone, Drake sat back heavily in his chair. His palms were sweating and his heart was hammering in his chest. Riot was alive. How many nights had he lain awake carefully not thinking about everything that had happened? That one shining, transcendent moment of pure symbiosis followed by the revelation of Riot’s true horrific mission. Drake’s eyes were prickling. This was pathetic. They’d had barely any time together. It was irrational to be grieving, and to be grieving _now_ of all times when he knew Riot was alive.

Riot was dangerous. Not because it was a powerful alien entity made of weapons, but because for a moment during the rocket catastrophe, back when they had been _winning_ , Drake had considered turning species-traitor. He had sunk so much time, effort and money into saving the human race because that was all there was. The only sapient life in the universe, as far as anyone had known. And then the symbiotes had turned out to be more than just resilient alien lifeforms. They had been people too, with their own goals and hopes and culture. 

What would Drake have done if Riot had been honest upfront? When he’d still been reeling from the glorious power of symbiosis and the possibilities had unfurled before him in a brilliant shining vista? If Riot had whispered that humans were alone and weak, doomed no matter what happened, but had offered _him_ a place among the stars if only he helped the symbiotes harvest the Earth and the next planet and the next planet after that? Drake knew where his weak points were and Riot would have known too. 

Drake shivered. He had committed necessary evils in the pursuit of his goals. When your goal was the salvation of humanity, there was no such thing as going too far, at least not on the scales Drake could personally affect. He would murder millions in a heartbeat if that was what it took to save the rest. But he wasn’t sure if he could have lived with himself if he had chosen to turn his back on humanity for Riot. For the symbiotes. What truly scared him was the thought that maybe he could have. 

Because he wanted Riot back. He wanted to feel that power coiled beneath his skin again. He wanted that deep rumble at the back of his skull picking over their shared plans. Riot had been another visionary, a ruthless leader bent on helping its people carve out a space in this hostile universe. But Drake knew that bonding with Riot again would be handing his body over to its control. It had no reason to humour him anymore. He would become its puppet as it worked towards its new goals. The very idea of symbiosis had become tainted. 

But none of that was relevant because space had gone back to being an unreachable pipedream, and Drake had turned his company’s resources toward geo-engineering. It was slapping a band-aid on a gaping wound, but it could buy them time and maybe another shot at space some day. And now Riot was back and had hunted him down a second time. For…

Drake’s mind blanked. He had no clue what Riot had wanted from him. Another rocket, presumably. Or some other way to contact the rest of its species? Revenge, maybe? Surely it made more sense to go after Venom and Brock for that. And besides, Drake had no illusions about who was faster between a human and symbiote. If Riot had wanted him dead, he’d be dead. That was the simple truth.

Riot hadn’t had a chance to even make its demands before Drake had forced it to admit to its original plan. Riot had been in his head, it must know how many years it would take Drake to persuade the board to funnel money back into space. There were other individuals with access to the sort of megawealth it took to finance rockets. There were better candidates for Riot to take over. 

Drake was starting to realise just how stupid he’d been to let Riot walk out of here. If he’d been more focused, less caught up in his own damn emotions, he could have ripped it from its current host body and. Well. His scientists weren’t around at this hour and security probably wouldn’t be much help in containing a symbiote. Capturing Riot wouldn’t have been feasible. Drake supposed he could have killed it. Something twisted inside him at the thought. Especially since Riot hadn’t killed him.

He needed more information. He needed to know what Riot was planning and he needed to set countermeasures in place. No more holding back. Drake had lied about his security team having been briefed on Riot. They knew the sort of threat Venom posed, of course. But Riot had been _dead_. His hands flew over the keyboard as he typed up a full brief for his new head of security. He’d provide her with everything she’d need to take down Riot. Or the two of them, if Riot managed to suborn him. And there was one last wild-card Drake might be able to use.

///

They were racing through the city again. Venom had eaten and his entire being seemed to hum with a deep rumbling satisfaction. For Eddie it felt more like a righteous power. And now they leapt between buildings for the sheer joy of it. Venom insisted that they could only do this because of Eddie’s brain. Apparently judging distances and catching were basically magic and only possible through complex dynamic equations that Eddie did unconsciously. Eddie wasn’t sure he quite believed Venom, but it was nice to think that it was synergy that let them move like this. 

**We’re being followed,** Venom pointed out.

Eddie jolted out of his thoughts and tried to look around, half expecting Riot to show up. They hadn’t heard from him since that first night. _What? Where?_

**Organised humans on the ground. Vehicles. Like the ones that came after us before.**

_How much like them? Are we talking the Life Foundation again?_

Venom gave them eyes on their back. There was a dizzying moment of perspective shift and then Eddie could see the humans moving about below. Yeah, those were Life Foundation goons. They had the fucking logo on their bikes and cars. Wait, that was weird. They’d been deliberately un-labelled before, probably because Drake didn’t want the public knowing about his little private army. Which meant that Drake must want them to know exactly who was coming after them. _Wanna go say hello?_ Eddie asked.

Venom grinned. **Yes.**

They skidded down the side of the building they were on, slowing their descent with claws and tendrils. They stopped some distance from the ground so they could get away quickly if Drake’s goons happened to have fire or sound weapons. There were tire squeals and shouting and soon the goons had fanned out below them, keeping their distance. Venom grinned down at them. **‘Hello.’**

The goon closest to them took a step forward, still well away from their tendrils.

‘Venom. We’re not here to fight!’ she shouted before crouching down and carefully laying her gun on the ground.

They snorted. **‘That’s not the first time someone’s said that to us this week. But he was much scarier than you.’**

A phone went off. The tinny store-default ringtone was loud in the silence created by too many people trying not to make the first move. The lead goon who’d laid her gun down reached slowly towards her pocket. Venom blinked as she pulled out the phone with one hand and swiped her thumb across the screen. She lifted it to her ear without taking her eyes off Venom. ‘Yes sir, we’re here with the target.’ She lowered the phone again. ‘Mr Drake wants to talk to you.’

They blinked. **‘A lot of effort just to talk to us.’**

She shrugged. ‘Sure.’

Eddie and Venom debated whether or not to take the call. This was a better option than getting dragged into the Foundation again. Though they were getting stronger as their bond got stronger and it probably wouldn’t be easy for Drake’s goons to drag them anywhere. **Might not be Drake at all,** Venom pointed out. The thought of Riot using a phone, even together with Drake was what decided them. They had to hear that. **‘Throw it,’** they told the lead goon. She eyed them, but did as instructed.

They snatched it from the air with a tendril. Venom crowed internally about how badass it was that they could predict the trajectory and grab it. They brought the phone close to their face. **‘What do you want?’**

‘Hello,’ came Drake’s smooth voice from the other end of the line. ‘I suppose I’ll cut to the chase, then. Do you know where Riot is or what its plans are?’

**‘Riot’s not with you?’**

‘Why would you think it’s with me?’

 **‘Where else would he go? His mission failed. Riot’s a team leader, not a core leader. He doesn’t have a plan. Doesn’t have anything.’** Venom had told Eddie that getting Riot to bond with a human was practical and a good way to keep the Earth safe. Eddie was starting to think that wasn’t the only reason. Maybe on some level Venom pitied Riot. A symbiote without symbiosis. Yeah, that probably cut a little too close. 

There was silence on the other end of the line. ‘Then why did it come to me?’ 

**‘You have something Riot wants.’**

Drake sucked in a sharp breath. ‘It was in my head. It has to know I don’t have another rocket. That there won’t _be_ another rocket.’

**‘That’s not what Riot wants. He got a taste of symbiosis with you. Wants _that_ again.’**

The silence stretched out again on Drake’s end. ‘Thank you for letting me know,’ he said eventually. ‘This is vitally important information.’ There was something hungry, almost threatening, in his voice that unsettled Eddie. ‘I don’t suppose you know how to find Riot?’

**‘Not really.**

There was a long exhale on the other end of the line and when Drake spoke again his voice gone back to its usual pleasant tone. ‘Alright, then there’s one more thing I wanted to say. You were right about the symbiotes. I saw Riot’s plan. I’m glad you stopped the rocket.’

They stared at the phone. **‘What? After everything you did to us, the people you killed–’**

Drake cut them off. ‘I don’t regret the actions I took, I regret picking the wrong goal. I’m not apologising for my methods and I’m not looking for forgiveness. I’m telling you I made an error about the facts. And I wanted to tell you that I’m not coming after you.’

**‘You sent these guys after us so you could tell us you aren’t sending guys after us.’**

‘You’re not going to make this easy, are you? Look, I’ve already taken you off the figurative no-hire list of all the major news outlets. Work won’t be quite so hard to come by anymore. I don’t want Venom dead, which apparently means that I don’t want you dead either, Brock. In fact I want you both out there and free to pursue your symbiosis in peace.’

**‘The hell you do. You want us in a lab. What’s your angle?’**

‘You’re my contingency plan. At first I wanted you as a backup in case Riot managed to take me over. After what you’ve told me, I’ve decided it makes more sense to offer Riot what it wants. That’s a risk, of course, and if it makes another play for destroying the world using my body, you’ll have to stop it. Keep the phone. It has my new security head’s contact details. She’s the one who gave you this phone. I trust her. She knows as much about the situation as anyone and she knows how to kill a symbiote.’ Venom growled at that. ‘And you, together with her team, will be enough to take down Riot. Obviously I’d prefer you get it out of me before killing it, but if that’s not an option do what you have to.’

They stared at the phone again. **‘You really are insane.’**

Drake gave a bitter laugh. ‘And you still don’t get it. It must be nice living in such a carefree world, full of easy answers and simple choices. What would _you_ be willing to risk for your symbiosis?’ Venom growled again. ‘Well I’m willing to risk a great deal. But not the Earth. Not the human race. So if Riot ends up taking over, will you help?’

**‘We’ll stop Riot if he tries to destroy the world, but we’re not going to try and save you first. We’ll also stop you if you try to do the same.’**

Drake gave a put-upon sigh. ‘Close enough. You know, if I thought for even one moment that you could be negotiated with… do you even have the imagination to see what we could do together, the four of us?’

**‘Goodbye, Drake.’**

‘Yes, yes, I get that you don’t – ’ It was immensely satisfying to hang up on him midsentence. They could imagine his expression. Venom’s flesh engulfed the phone for later. As much as they didn’t trust Drake, a contact was a contact.

///

Venom melted back beneath Eddie’s skin a few blocks from their apartment. They tried not to hang around the area in full Venom-mode in case someone joined the dots. Eddie shoved his hands in his pockets and Venom’s tendrils slid through the material and tangled with his fingers. A smile tugged at Eddie’s lips as they walked home through the deserted streets. 

The door was unlocked when they arrived. Eddie swore to himself. It was better than the time he’d locked himself out, but if nothing had been stolen it would only be because no thief would believe anyone was stupid enough to leave their door unlocked in a neighbourhood like this one. Eddie pushed open the door and locked it firmly behind him, like that would somehow make up for forgetting. 

**‘Venom,’** growled a voice from inside the apartment. 

Eddie flailed as he tried to jump and turn around at the same time. His keys clattered to the floor and he probably would have face-planted if Venom hadn’t caught him.

‘The fuck are you doing in my apartment?!’ Eddie squawked. 

Riot’s host body was perched on the back of Eddie’s couch, feet resting on the seat. He’d been in humans for a while now, he’d been in Drake, so Eddie was almost sure Riot knew how to sit like a human and not some weird gargoyle. Almost sure. 

Riot’s creepy alien eyes stared at Eddie from the dead woman’s face. **‘You are in symbiosis with Venom.’**

Eddie blinked. ‘Uh, yeah?’

**‘What is it about humans?’**

‘What’s what about humans?’

Riot growled again in favour of using actual words. 

Eddie took a wide path around Riot and made his way to the kitchen. ‘V?’ he whispered. 

**Yes?**

‘You may have noticed that, you know, _Riot_ seems to be crashing in our apartment. How did he even find us?’

 **‘Venom is the only other one left. You are easy to track,’** Riot said from the other room.

‘Thanks, this is a private conversation!’ Eddie called out.

**Don’t worry. He doesn’t want to kill us. Being obvious about it, too.**

‘Great… that’s… great. Did you want to maybe talk to him or something?’

Venom swirled up around Eddie’s ribs and then down to the pit of his guts. His equivalent of a shrug. **Tried that.**

Eddie put his face in his hands and gave a loud groan. ‘How did we end up in the middle of these two lunatics?’

A few of Venom’s tendrils manifested and pushed at the back of Eddie’s neck in a weird sort of comforting gesture. He snorted. ‘Thanks. Okay. Let’s go… talk to Riot.’

He wandered back into the lounge room. Riot’s body was staring straight ahead at a blank wall. ‘So Drake contacted us a few hours ago. He was looking for you.’ 

Riot’s head snapped around, inhumanly fast and inhumanly far. Eddie shivered. **‘Why?’**

‘The same reason you want him, I think. He wants symbiosis.’

**‘I’m not aberrant!’**

Eddie held up his hands placatingly until Venom forced them back down. ‘Okay! No one’s using the, um, A-word. Fuck. Can you maybe just leave and not destroy the Earth? Or eat anyone?’ 

Riot was silent for a long moment. **‘Where is Drake looking?’**

‘I don’t know. It’s up to you to find him.’ Not that Eddie thought Drake was doing any physical searching himself when he had people to do that _for_ him. ‘Wait.’ Eddie dug around in his pockets until he found where Venom had stashed the phone Drake’s goon had given them. There was only one contact stored. The name was just ‘Louise Security’ and there was one number. ‘You want to find Drake? How does the roof of the Life Foundation tomorrow night sound?’ he asked.

Riot stared at him. **‘You could arrange this?’**

‘Let’s find out,’ Eddie muttered.

He typed out a brief message: _Tell your boss his boyfriend wants to meet him on the roof of the life foundation tomorrow night_

The phone buzzed a few moments later. _Venom?_ said the first text.

The phone buzzed again. _Stop screwing around. This line is for emergency use._

Eddie felt Riot’s gaze boring into him while he sighed and typed again. _Your boss wants this message. Deliver it_

There was a long pause that dragged on for several minutes. The phone buzzed again. _He says thank you and that he’ll be there alone. And I say that if this is a trap, I will shoot you. With a flamethrower._

Eddie contemplated retorting, but he let it go. Because he was the bigger person, of course, and not because he couldn’t think of a way to top the flamethrower threat. 

He looked up at Riot who was still staring at him. Come to think of it, Eddie wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Riot make his host body blink. Creepy. ‘Fine, Drake will be on the roof of the Life Foundation building tomorrow night. Alone, apparently.’

Eddie got the sense that Riot wasn’t really looking at _him_ anymore. **‘We’re the last ones on this planet. I don’t want to kill you,’** he finally said.

Venom hesitated before pushing out from Eddie’s shoulder and forming a face. **‘Thought not. There have been at least three opportunities for you to attack and you didn’t take _any_ of them.’**

‘And we’re back to ignoring the human,’ Eddie muttered.

Riot’s gaze shifted away from Venom’s face. **‘You’re not a human anymore and I was talking to you. You both. Yous. This language doesn’t make the distinction well. Malay is better.’**

Eddie gaped. And not just because Riot had just said ‘yous’. ‘Of course I’m a human!’

Venom blinked his large milky eyes. **‘If you like,’** he said in what was probably supposed to be a reassuring tone. 

‘Whatever! I’m glad you don’t want to kill us. Maybe consider not killing any other humans either.’

Riot made a harsh noise like two pieces of metal grating against each other. Eddie had just enough experience parsing Venom’s sounds that he was ninety percent sure that was an amused noise. Riot uncoiled from the couch and stalked over to the window. At least he opened it instead of crashing through it on his way out. 

‘He’s not going to stop eating people, is he?’

**‘Probably not. But that means we can eat more people too, right? Because of “fairness”.’**

///

The sun had fully set by the time Riot made the climb to the roof of the Life Foundation. The air was heavy with salt from the sea and the wind whipped at Riot’s host. It remembered its time riding a shark with a twinge of melancholy. Things had been simple in the oceans. 

The wind was harsher on the rooftop, but it didn’t seem to deter the lone figure standing in the meagre shelter of a high curling duct. Riot approached cautiously, melting back beneath its host’s skin. That had to be Drake and he was alone, just as Venom had said. He didn’t appear to be armed with either fire or sound, though Riot had learned not to be complacent. 

‘You’re alone,’ Drake said, stepping forward as well.

 **‘As are you,’** Riot noted out loud.

Drake’s lips quirked up in a strange smile. ‘That’s not quite what I meant. You’re alone on this planet, with Venom there as the only tangible reminder of what you’ve lost.’ Riot twisted beneath its host’s skin. Drake was not wrong. ‘There isn’t going to be another rocket. I’m probably the least likely person in the world who’ll have access to one again.’

 **‘I know,’** Riot growled.

‘But do you understand?’ Drake pressed. He tilted his head. ‘Your mission failed. Do you have other directives?’

**‘No.’**

‘No,’ Drake repeated softly. ‘At the time I didn’t realise how cruel it was to let you slip away. You had nothing else and so you came to me.’ He took another step forward. ‘And I hurt you.’

Riot shivered in its host, remembering the sound precisely calibrated to tear it apart. **‘You were angry, afraid.’**

Drake’s smile didn’t waver. ‘I suppose I was. I was feeling a lot of things when I thought you were dead. That power, that connection gone in a flash of flame and sound. I was alone. Like you. But it doesn’t have to be that way.’ Drake took another step forward. ‘What do you want, Riot?’

In a burst of clarity, Riot realised that Drake knew. Somehow he knew what Riot was going to say. _Want_ was a very different concept than fulfilling the mission parameters. And now that Riot was being given the option to decide, all it wanted was something aberrant. If it chose this there was no going back. **‘Symbiosis. With you.’** The words were poison diffusing through every part of its form.

Drake breathed out sharply. His smile was full of teeth now and his eyes seemed to gleam in the low light. ‘Yes. I can give you that. I can give you purpose and power and somewhere to belong. And I’m the only one who can. We’re going to change the world.’

Riot remembered that cold, shining purpose at the centre of Drake’s mind. So much of him was built around that unbreakable certainty and hunger. In the empty places where the mission used to live, Riot wanted to feel that again. It manifested, but without copying the human pattern it was riding. No pretence, no infiltration or hiding. Riot pushed out tendrils from beneath its host’s skin, baring as much of its flesh as it could, letting teeth and blades form and dissolve in line with its instincts. 

Drake didn’t hesitate. He closed the final distance between them, reaching out to caress the first tendrils that caught his body. ‘Riot.’

Riot shivered at the sound of its name, spoken in the tones of awe and reverence it remembered. It wrapped itself around Drake’s body and melted beneath his skin, releasing its previous host body and letting the meat collapse. 

Drake’s body was familiar and compatible down to a cellular level. His immune system barely registered Riot’s presence after the tweaks it had made the first time. The heartbeat was strong, pumping faster as Riot reacquainted itself with the nerves and blood vessels and skeletal muscles. It slid tendrils up into Drake’s brain, hooking into the complex folds comprising sensory and effector processes and re-establishing links to thought and memory and consciousness. Riot hesitated for one, two, beats of Drake’s heart, before claiming full control of the body.

It locked his muscles in place, allowing him only the freedom to breathe and speak. There was something thrilling in having Drake like this, every part of him to the borders of his skin, but that wasn’t the main reason Riot had taken control. **Now what?** it asked curiously.

Drake gave a low laugh. He wasn’t trying to fight Riot for control, which was inexplicably gratifying. ‘I was just about to ask you the same question. Do you want control of the body _for_ anything?’

**I want to know what your plan is. You have people with sound close by, don’t you?**

‘Ah, a test,’ Drake said dryly. ‘I have measures in place, but nothing close. Nothing that could stop you tearing me apart right now, if you wanted to.’

**Reckless.**

‘No. _My_ test. I’m almost sure you don’t want to kill me, but I need to know. I can’t be looking over my shoulder, second-guessing you. I want this. I want _you_ , despite every reason I shouldn’t.’ 

**And if I overlaid you now, and jumped off the side of this building, do you think your people would have a chance of following us?**

‘No. But if you took me over completely, if you tried to use my body against my species, maybe it would be easier for me to watch you die after they did catch up to us.’

Riot paused, an odd feeling lurching through them both. It remembered Drake’s talk of ripping his heart out. The connotations seemed a lot more obvious now that they were sharing a consciousness again. **You mourned me. Even after you knew what my mission was.**

‘I did. Stupid of me, I know.’ Riot slowly withdrew its control, allowing Drake to move again. Drake shivered, like he could feel Riot’s tendrils moving through his flesh. ‘It’s better this way,’ Drake said, his tone low and intent. ‘Your goals were short-sighted and senseless, they weren’t even your own. We can do so much more, _be_ so much more, than your people could even imagine.’

The certainty at the very core of Drake was strong and cold enough to burn. If Riot focused, reached out toward that place, it could almost believe him. 

Making the final connection was easy, more a matter of giving up the fight than putting in conscious effort. The link was as bright and strong as it had been on the launch pad. They focused inward, marvelling at the power, the alignment. Riot saw every calculated move Drake had made since their first meeting after the explosion, how carefully he’d selected his words and wielded them like weapons. It found itself more impressed than outraged, especially since it felt the strength of the underlying goal. _Mine,_ Drake’s thoughts whispered to it. So much of that deep hunger was directed at Riot. As if Riot were giving itself over rather than simply allowing the symbiosis. 

Amusing that Drake still hadn’t grasped the full implications. Like Venom’s host, he failed to realise everything that symbiosis entailed. Drake had wanted a new species without really understanding what that meant. **_Ours,_** Riot whispered back, first referring to the flesh that it permeated at every level and then further out to this world and further out still to the stars. Perhaps that would be enough to satisfy their hunger.


End file.
